Arsenal: every Europa League winner loses

Arsenal were beaten by the mighty FC Cologne in the Europa Cup. The German side was poor, needing a pretty soft penalty to hit the net; but even when faced with the Bundesliga’s worst side Arsenal couldn’t score. But fear not, Arsenal fans. The Gunners can still win the second-rate cup. No team to have captured the trophy since the first winners in 2010 has gone the course undefeated.

The following is a guide to how many matches the eventual winners lost by. Defeats in two-legged knock-out rounds are in brackets.

2010: Atletico Madrid 3 (1)

2011: Porto (2)

2012: Atletico Madrid 1

2013: Chelsea 2 (2)

2014: Seville (3)

2015: Seville 1

2016: Seville 4 (2)

2017: Manchester United 1

Onwards and upwards, Arsenal. One the best players take part it’ll be shoo-in, right. Ozil and Sanchez will fire Arsenal home – unless thy leave the club in January.